Koko back under electric grill

21 January 2018 - 00:00 By THABO MOKONE

Former acting Eskom CEO Matshela Koko's woes are not over. He is due to be questioned in parliament on Wednesday when the inquiry into the alleged capture of the power utility resumes.
Koko has been lined up to appear before the National Assembly's public enterprises portfolio committee.
Following the Christmas break, the committee will resume its inquiry into the governance and management failures at Eskom.
The hearing will come a fortnight after Koko's return to his job as the head of power generation at Eskom following his exoneration of wrongdoing at the utility.
He had been accused, among other things, of using his position to influence the awarding of contracts worth R1-billion to an engineering company, Impulse, where his stepdaughter was a shareholder.Another senior Eskom executive, suspended chief financial officer Anoj Singh, is due to appear too. Singh will be questioned on his role in the alleged capture of the parastatal by the Gupta family.
Singh was sent packing by the committee last year after he angered MPs with a 400-page submission tabled the day before his scheduled appearance in December. This did not give MPs enough time to study the documents before questioning him.
Once MPs have questioned Koko and Singh, they will ask former chairman Ben Ngubane about his tenure at Megawatt Park, Eskom's Johannesburg headquarters.
The Sunday Times understands that Ngubane is scheduled to be on the parliamentary witness list only next week.
Ngubane appeared before a similar inquiry in 2016 when parliament investigated mismanagement at the SABC. The inquiry wanted to know about Ngubane's time as chairman of the SABC board.
Deputy Minister of Public Enterprises Ben Martins is due to appear at the Eskom inquiry on January 31. He was implicated, by Eskom's legal services head, Suzanne Daniels, in alleged state capture. Daniels is currently suspended.
Daniels told MPs last year that Martins had been in a meeting with one of the Gupta brothers. The Gupta brother claimed to have contacts at the office of the judge president of the High Court in Pretoria who could influence the court case of former Eskom CEO Brian Molefe...

There’s never been a more important time to support independent media.

From World War 1 to present-day cosmopolitan South Africa and beyond, the Sunday Times has been a pillar in covering the stories that matter to you.

For just R80 you can become a premium member (digital access) and support a publication that has played an important political and social role in South Africa for over a century of Sundays. You can cancel anytime.

Already subscribed? Sign in below.



Questions or problems? Email helpdesk@timeslive.co.za or call 0860 52 52 00.